The Government is just leading into liquidation as the are lots of documents needed from the contractor during tender stage which he pays for with no letter of appointment in his hand. Some of these documents will not be found with immediate effect eg, COIDA Document. This Document can be found from the Department of Labor after some time when the tender has already closed. This is a frustration for the tenders, the government must improve his systems and employ competent people.

There is a lot of money being spent fruitlessly by the Government officials as they can easily appoint a consultant which 1500 km away from the site when there is the one which 1 km away from the site. this is the main aspect that is tremendously killing the State on disbursements. The State must always appoint the nearest consultant irrespective of being registered in a data base of Implementing Agent or not. The Implementing Agent must advertise for Expression of Interest, close the tender, but must have an authority to select from the consultants outside the database as some of them are recently registered as professionals to avoid putting them on a waiting list for 5 years.

The client must pay the contractor on time to avoid the liquidation of the contractor as he is only the driving force of the project. Should the contractor be liquidated, then the project will come to a standstill.

Government Officials must stop asking for money from the constructing team as they cripple the team financially, this leads to the failure of the project which the client has invested billions in it which cannot be recovered.

Discount on professional fees is the one that demoralize Professional disciplines. Therefore, I suggest that the Government gazette be adjusted accordingly to suit the Implementing Agents by involving them in the compilation of the Professional fees.

Some of the contractors cannot spend the construction funds correctly, they buy Mercedes Bends instead of bakkies and this them to a complete failure. I suggest that the whole construction material must be purchased by the Client and keep them in stores, in other words, the contractor must only be employed for labor only contracts.

The main aspect that fails projects is non payment of the contractor which leads to a boy-court solution by the employees.

1. South African projects are due to the fact that the Client does not attach a Project Manager on each project or embark on a Turnkey Contract.

I tend to agree with the 1st comment. We need to identify where failures are , then unpack why projects are failing. In my knowledge private sector project are not failing because the decisions are made quicker and there no committees to approve every step and also no institution politics , there's far less red tape or non at all compared to public sector projects. Secondly, corruption is the main cause of public projects failing dismally and this intertwines with political interference. 3rdly deployment of cadres in decision making position, who do not have a clue about construction, and who do not understand the conditions of contract and their legal implications, both contractually and in common law. Construction sector is a profession like health, education, etc. There must be, i repeat must barrier to entry, construction must be done by people who have construction related qualification, not teachers, nurses, doctors, etc. Contractors must be people qualified in construction.

I would like to start my point with a counter question as to which types of construction projects, Private or Public? Each have their own dynamics which play definitive roles that ultimately affect the delivery of the project. In order to understand the extent of the problem, these two environments need to be isolated and compared with each other to determine why do some projects succeed and others fail. The traits that lead to the success of projects on either side can be contextualized and applied to failing and future projects. The project life cycle is the same for any project, so the success or failure of projects does not rely on one element within the life cycle. It is a result of incremental incidences that eventually sum up to the success or failure of a project.

Political interference, coupled with weak accountability throughout the project lifecycle, is a significant contributor to the failure of construction projects in South Africa. Contractual provisions are often difficult to enforce against politically connected contractors, as they may escalate matters to senior officials who have the authority to override or influence contractual decisions.

Factors Affecting SA construction projects and why the same are failing: 1 Construction Mafia - Demanding 30% of contract value causing disruption. 2 Contractors are not paid in terms of the contract and in time. 3 Lack of skills from relevant consultants. 4 Current economic conditions